Clinical
Trouble between the sheets: Think your patient's fatigue is a sign of depression? A study in Chest says: look no further than sleep apnea.

Master stroke or deathblow: Plaque clean-up in the arteries can slice stroke risk in half -- if the patient lives to tell the tale.

Take the short cut: Get out your measuring stick for a quick new way to tell who should get a bone density scan.

Extreme contraception: As if having Chlamydia wasn't bad enough, seems the STI also makes men's sperm sluggish.

Ready or not, here I come: Respiratory syncytial virus plays hide and seek with the body's immune system and attacks when you least expect it.

Cursed for life: PMS-sufferers are more likely to have a rocky menopause. More cold comfort for those hot flashes.

Here's spinach in your eye: In news to gladden Popeye's heart, spinach protein transplants into blind eyes can help restore black and white sight.

LFT of normal: Disease is slipping through the cracks with current 'normal' range for liver function tests.

Don't suck me dry: Hefty mums have a hard time producing enough milk for their suckling babes -- lower prolactin levels may be the culprits.

"No girls allowed": BMJ study shows that simple screening for aortic aneurysm staves off the Grim Reaper -- at least for men. Where were all the ladies?

Chickening out on pain: Research in Pain shows that pregabalin can help relieve the ouch when chicken pox pays a second visit.

Government & Medicine
Number cruncher in the House: The Rock's Health Minister relishes the challenges of health on a shoestring. This

Pettigrew hoisted by P3 petard: Federal Health Minister can't unsay his position on private MRIs enough. But what's really going on?

An aborted cause?: Is a culture of fear threatening to reduce abortion access by attrition?

Features
A need for speed: This family doc with a passion for bikes and a love of the open road experiences a year of living dangerously.

Game, skill set, match?: Are Canadian surgeons "reluctant to change" or are they champions of their game?

The Magoo effect: How's a doc to know when to recommend elderly patients to steer clear and get off the road?

Going over like a lead balloon: Drug-coated stents are on trial, but is design flaw or human error to blame?

The unhappy organ: With fewer healthy victims dying in MVAs, is it time for the sick to start pounding the pavement for organ donors?

Quit 'cause of the cold, turkey: Will a new smoking/frostbite link drive some to quit -- or to fight for the right to smoke indoors?

Nothing to wheeze at: British study shows that more women are dying of asthma than men. Are the methods all they're cracked up to be?

Doubting Thomas blues: Cancer patients who go looking for a second opinion can be a scourge to oncologists.

Stand and deliver: The FDA stops and searches a busload of script-toting US seniors at the Canadian border -- and draws fire from all sides.

Vaccine plays hard to get: Why can't we just say 'yes' to a childhood herpes vaccine? And even if it's approved by healthcare, is society ready?

Pediatrics Special Section
I can ear you wheezing: Little ones prone to ear infections are also likely to get saddled with asthma.

Silent but violent: Silent strokes can sneak up on kids with S-beta-thalassemia.

Don't hold your breath: New reports show troublingly high child asthma rates in Canada -- but laudably low treatment spending.

Mummy, it hurts: WHAT TO TELL YOUR PATIENTS puts a bandage on the world of ouch and boo-boos.

Net menace?: Net-savvy new parents are proud of their wee ones' every coo and poo -- but are they blogging little Sally's doom?

You're a big boy, now: New kid on the pediatric research block in the 'Peg gives the old boys a run for their grant money.

Departments
Across Canada: News highlights from coast to coast to coast.

News in Brief: bite-size treats from the international world of medicine

Editorial: Experiments in private healthcare

Editorial: Medicine in the here and now

Pursuits: Stamping out dissent: Families that collect together stay together.

Classics: A film, CD, and book that deserve a second look.

Practice Management
Show them who's boss: Lay down the law and rein in those renegade staffers -- but tread lightly or your practice could suddenly be a very lonely place.